I’ve always been concerned that some agile practices are applied even when they are not appropriate for a particular situation. I’ve called this Agile 101, learning the basics, that Alistair Cockburn calls the Shu level of learning ( Shu-Ha-Ri are the three levels). All too often some agile practice or misunderstood principle will be inappropriately [...]
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Build Less, Start Sooner
Jeff Patton recently reminded me of two simple strategies for software development that I’ve talked about from time to time—Build Less Software and Start Sooner. I thought I’d follow up on Jeff’s blog and revisit these simple, but powerful strategies. First, managers and executives complain a lot about not delivering software (or any other product [...]
Features or Quality? Selling Software Excellence to Business Partners
Features or Quality? It’s always been difficult getting business partners (from executives to product owners) interested in quality—be that code quality, design quality, automated testing, or technical debt. Software technical excellence numbers (ah, if we just had good numbers) don’t mean much to business partners. Recently I’ve been adding to the Agile Triangle (Value, Quality, [...]
Making Self-Organization Work
Discipline without freedom is tyranny; freedom without discipline is chaos (Cullen Hightower). Morning Star is the largest tomato processor in the United States with 400 employees and over $700 million in annual revenues. Morning Star’s CEO, Chris Rufer, built a successful company on the principle of self-management where everyone is responsible for coordinating with colleagues, customer, [...]
“Over’s” Usefulness in Decision Making
The Agile Manifesto was written in a very deliberate style, for example, “Individuals and interactions over process and tools.” The word “over” was carefully chosen and establishes a key agile principle that many things in our world are too complex for black or white answers so we need to differentiate between what is critical and [...]
What do Leaders Want from Agile?
I’ve just returned from a busy 4-week trip to Germany and Australia, and then Chicago. In shaking off the jet-lag cobwebs I took some time to reflect on this trip and others over the last 6-8 months (UK, Brazil, and the Agile Executive Summit). On these trips I’ve talked with many, many executives and managers [...]
Can-do Thinking Makes Risk Management Impossible
“Can-do thinking makes risk management impossible. Since acknowledging real risk is defeatism, the risk management function in a can-do organization is restricted to dealing with those smallish risks that can be mitigated by quick action. That means you confront all the risks except the ones that really matter.” (Tom DeMarco, Why Does Software Cost So [...]
Affiliations
- APLN.org - Cofounder & Board Member
- Agile Alliance - Cofounder
